Reverse Bargaining

I met a really nice shop owner in Zanzibar stone town. I was looking for a bao board (a Swahili game I learned to play on the beach) and started chatting with the shop owner who was showing me different things in his store. When I got back to my hostel I realized that I was wearing this beautiful silver bracelet that he had me try on at one point. The next day I went back to the store to return the bracelet and the shopkeeper insisted I keep it as a gift so I promised to come back and do my entire souvenir shopping through him on my last day in the town. I went back and picked out a large enough collection of random things that should have cost me about $60-$70, I was splurging but I knew I was getting a great deal – Rashid, the shop owner wouldn’t let me pay more than 20,000Tsh (about $20) for everything, and even that was after I explained that there’s no way I was taking everything for free.

I’m telling you, Zanzibar really is a vortex.